The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Health in Abano Terme (Sanctuary of Monteortone or Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Health of Monteortone) stands in the district of Monteortone on the Euganean Hills and represents a suggestive place of Marian devotion active for over five centuries, following an apparition of the Virgin. The church, dedicated to the Assumption of Santa Maria, was in fact built in the 15th century (consecrated in 1435, then destroyed by a fire, it was rebuilt larger according to a design by Pietro Lombardo and reconsecrated in 1495) at the foot of the Monteortone Hill where in 1428 a soldier, Pietro Falco, an elderly seer who used to retreat here in prayer, was miraculously healed from old battle wounds to his lower limbs, after having had a vision of the Madonna inviting him to immerse himself in the ancient thermal spring that gushed there in a small wood, and ordering him to build a church dedicated to her in exchange for the rapid cessation of the plague that was ravaging Padua at that time. In the spring, Pietro found a wooden image of the Virgin (with the Child Jesus and on the sides St. Christopher the martyr and St. Anthony the Abbot), an icon painting by an anonymous artist still preserved in the apse of the main altar. As the news of the miracle spread, an ever-increasing number of devotees began to visit the Monteortone cave and the small oratory that was initially established near the cave, and a convent was also built where the friars would guard the spring: thus a new religious congregation was born, the Augustinians of the Blessed Virgin of Monteortone.
The Church of Santa Maria Assunta still preserves today in the original oratory (the current chapel incorporated in the apse, behind the grille of the main altar) the miraculous image of the Madonna, and is the destination of numerous pilgrimages every year. However, several other votive works of art were looted from the sanctuary when the Augustinian monastery was suppressed by Napoleonic decree (1810), however in the church there have been preserved a refined marble holy water font by Giovanni Minello and a Madonna with Child attributed to the painter Jacopo Parisati of Montagnana (late 15th century). The most notable painting in the church is the large fresco by Jacopo da Montagnana that decorates the apse closed at the top by a vaulted ceiling. In the center is depicted the Assumption of Mary into Heaven with the apostles who witness the event in amazement; on the side walls are the Birth of the Virgin and the Apparition of the Madonna to Pietro Falco (the latter work characterized by a very realistic depiction of the Euganean landscape). Expropriated and kept closed for a long time, the place was reopened for worship at the beginning of the 20th century; in 1925 the Marian sanctuary was elevated to parish status.
The Church of the famous Sanctuary of Our Lady of Health in Abano Terme now presents itself as an imposing three-nave structure with an apse, in Latin cross, with a tripartite façade featuring a large baroque portal in white stone, the work of Matteo Allio (1667). Attached to the church is the 16th-century ex-Augustinian convent, which inside features a large cloister with a true well-cistern made from a single piece of original marble from the 16th century. At the back, on the left, stands the tall and elegant Gothic bell tower from the 15th century characterized by a spire. On the right, the site of Pietro Falco's healing is visible: a small masonry cave, accessed by a staircase, inside which pilgrims can draw (warm) water considered miraculous. Inside the church of Monteortone, the main altar is inlaid with multicolored marbles (1683). An ambulatory allows pilgrims to pass behind the altar and admire the revered Marian image. The two lateral naves are closed off with chapels that house two paintings from the 16th-17th centuries: “The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene” by Giovanni Battista Bissoni and “Crucifixion between Saints Augustine and Jerome” by Palma il Giovane.
